


Hey There, Teen Outcast

by nimmieamee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 1x04 coda, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-25 23:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9851993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimmieamee/pseuds/nimmieamee
Summary: A sleuthing mission takes B & V (and a tagalong C, and a very beleaguered K) into the den of a South Side Serpent, where they learn a few things about their old pal Jughead.





	1. Chapter 1

Veronica had thought Riverdale would be sedate, ghostly, and safe at night. The all-American town, where you could wander down a side street at three in the morning and only pass a seven-eleven and maybe a gas station.

But then she never thought she would be doing that, herself, because she wasn't a sketchy midnight wanderer. And she prided herself on always getting her beauty sleep.

Still, here she was. Here they all were, creeping down a very unsafe road in the South Side. Betty, because she was far too much the town's Nancy Drew, it turned out; and also very into defying her mother right now. Cheryl, because Cheryl appeared wherever they were all the time always, wrapped in a designer cloud of orchid perfume and a barely-concealed need to be included. And Kevin, because 12am was the only time he could get out from under Sheriff Keller's overprotective gaze and meet Joaquin (a serpent and a hottie and so scandalous that Veronica had actually high-fived Kevin when she'd heard). 

"To clarify, we didn't need to actually come to the South Side to meet him!" Kevin hissed now. "Or we wouldn't have, if Veronica hadn't stolen my phone and texted him that we were coming! _He_ would have come to _us_."

"I approve of that," Cheryl said. "You should always make a man jump to meet you at first. It sets the necessary tone for the rest of the relationship."

"You know what isn't a good tone to set?" Kevin said. "Showing up with three women to a gay man's date. Hi, Joaquin. Here are my three--"

"Call me a hag and I will slit your throat," Cheryl said.

Betty said, "Can we please be quiet?"

This was a good request. Everyone in the North, East, and West sides of Riverdale was snug in their queen- or king- sized beds, behind cheery curtains and brightly-painted front doors, waiting for the paperboy and the jingle of the food truck (that would be the East Side. The East Side was hipster heaven). Here in the South Side, everyone was still awake. Televisions blared behind thin trailer walls, and somewhere not too far off some meatheads were riding their motorcycles aimlessly along a mud slick. 

It was all very 8 Mile and Veronica never wanted to visit again. 

Still, she led the charge when it came to sneaking past the trashcan fire-pit parties and probable-alcoholics in lawn chairs. She _had_ been the one to drag them out here. And while she was furious that her louboutins were now covered in mud, she was starting to feel that she'd made the right choice.

_That was our life,_ her mother had said, like the well-furnished pied-à-terre was too ghastly to contemplate spending a lifetime in. It was small, of course. It wasn't the Dakota. Any of Veronica's Spence classmates would have sneered at it. 

But it wasn't this. If the Lodges had been relegated to this, then -- then maybe Veronica would have understood. 

"Why did you drag us here, V?" Cheryl whispered now. Because she was fast and deadly in her ruined thigh-high boots, she had managed to make herself second in line behind Veronica, leaving Kevin and Betty to squelch along in the rear. "Are you looking up new places for you and your waitress mother to live? It is très tragique how you've fallen--"

"Cheryl, I swear to god, I will sell you to a passing biker," Veronica hissed.

"Why, V, do you need the money?" Cheryl asked sweetly.

"Who's talking money?" Veronica said. "I would sell you for five cents. I'd bargain against myself to get you off my hands."

Cheryl huffed, but dropped it.

Only Betty was privy to her reasons for coming here. Veronica's father was still her father, after all, and it wouldn't do to reveal his drive-down-the-price-of-Riverdale scheme to a Blossom. Even Veronica understood that. 

"But I still have to do something," she'd told Betty. "This town is all Wisconsin death trip sometimes, sure, but it still feels like I should be here. Like I should be one of _you_. Doesn't it? I mean, I have to keep daddy from ruining it."

"We don't know if he's still going to ruin it, though," Betty had said. "Or if he has plans to ruin any more of it. Nobody but Jughead really did like the drive-in. And your mother said he'd sunk everything into this one deal, right? Just one?"

Even in Betty's wholesome mouth, the idea that Hiram Lodge, modern-day robber baron, would stop at one deal -- well. It sounded ridiculous. But something unspoken had passed between them then. Betty didn't believe in Hiram Lodge, but she did seem to believe in _Veronica_ , and so she wanted to investigate before she concluded that Veronica's father was totally and completely shady.

So: the South Side. Where all the evidence was. Or at least where Joaquin was. Kevin swore up and down that Joaquin was nothing like the rest of the Serpents, so hopefully he could tell them something.

His trailer, when they found it, was strung up with cheerful lights like no one had bothered to take them down after Christmas. He had a lawn gnome. Betty poked it and said, "Aw, that's cute. You didn't tell me he was kitschy," and Kevin said, "To be honest, I really just explored his tonsils. I don't really know that much about him."

"You told us he was trustworthy!" Veronica said now. "You said, 'he's straight!'"

Kevin blinked at her. 

"Why would I ever say that? I said, _not straight_ , like a man finally finding water in the desert, and you misheard me. That's on you!"

"He's someone we can more or less trust to talk to us," Betty said, brushing past them and knocking on the door. "That's a start."

Joaquin, when he opened the door, didn't look likely to deceive. Mainly because he looked thrilled to see Kevin, and then sort of confused to see the rest of them. Confusion looked good on his bronzed, greek god features, but then any emotion would look good on those. Veronica had to forgive Kevin as a result. 

She mouthed _nice_ and Kevin mouthed _right?_

"Uh, do you want to come in?" Joaquin said. "All of you? I guess?"

"I don't even want to be here," Cheryl said loudly. "I just want to know what secrets B & V are hiding this time. It's connected to Jason, I bet."

Betty and Veronica both rolled their eyes. With a sniff, Cheryl led the way in. Joaquin stepped aside to let her pass, looking blindsided. The inside of his trailer was cramped but clean, and once they were all seated on his lumpy orange couch he hovered nervously.

"Uh, so, it's not much--"

"It certainly isn't," Cheryl agreed, and then shrieked when Veronica kicked her. 

"--but I thought it would be only Kevin."

"Kevin also thought it would be only Kevin," Kevin said, with a chastising look at the rest of them. "Kevin is so, so sorry."

Joaquin grinned at him. Kevin grinned back. It was definitely A Moment for them and Veronica almost felt sorry for ruining it, except that Joaquin belonged to a gang her father was brokering shady deals with, so no, she wasn't sorry.

"We aren't here to ruin your date. We just need some information," she announced.

"For an expose we might run in the Blue & Gold," Betty put in, with a wary glance at Cheryl. "About the city selling property off when the Serpents look like they might move in. But not just the Serpents. Anybody from the South Side! Sort of a socioeconomic expose, you know." She smiled, and somehow made the smile look ashamed of itself and also of its entire class. 

"How the town turns its back on places that aren't frequented by the right kinds of people," she finished.

"Oh," Joaquin said. 

He poured them all some water, which was nice of him, and pulled a small chair over so that he could sit with them.

"Um," he said. "I don't think you need to do a socioeconomic expose. Most people, uh, don't ever want to associate with the poor."

"That is _so_ true," Cheryl said, with a flutter of her lashes and a delicate hand on her chest. "I'm 100% opposed to associating with the poor myself."

Veronica tried to kick her again, but this time she dodged it. Kevin, who had clearly been rooting for Veronica's kick to land, hissed, "Sure, Cheryl, you following us to a trailer park really proves that."

" _Anyway_ ," Betty said loudly, "As you can see, some people at Riverdale High still need to learn that there's value in the people of the South Side. Even the Serpents."

"Oh, no, the Serpents really are horrible," said Joaquin. "I've been trying to leave for like four months."

"Really?" Kevin said, sounding hopeful.

"Why?" Betty said, zeroing in on the lead. "What are they doing? Is it connected to the Twilight?"

Joaquin blinked his beautiful baby-blues at her beautiful baby-blues.

"How did you know that?"

"Hot tip," Veronica said quickly. "What can you tell us about that deal?"

"Well, I mean, that was FP--"

"FP?" Betty repeated. She looked unsure, like he'd said something she hadn't expected him to say.

"What's an FP?" Veronica asked her.

Before she could answer, someone pounded on the door.

"Little snake!" said a voice. A familiar voice. The voice of the man from the drive-in, the one she had seen arguing with her mother. They caught a flash of him through the window -- dark hair, dark stubble -- that confirmed it.

"Aw," Cheryl crooned. "It's your mother's boyfriend, Veronica."

"It's a speak of the devil moment is what it is," Joaquin said, sounding panicky. "Get in the bedroom. Now! Especially you, Kevin."

He moved fast, hustling them all off the couch and in the direction of a narrow door. The space beyond it was barely big enough for the four of them. Veronica and Cheryl and Kevin all ended up on the bed. Betty stood in the small space just before the door, her ear to its thin wood, her hands tucked into her armpits. She looked very worried about something. Probably the gang leader in the room just beyond.

"Oh my god," Kevin was saying. "Oh my god. Is that guy the head _Serpent_? My dad is gonna kill me if he finds out, Veronica--"

"Oh, please. You're in Hunky Soprano's bed, which is exactly where you wanted to be. You can calm down about it any second now," Cheryl said, rolling her eyes.

And Betty said, "Shut up!" 

Which was pretty uncharacteristic for Betty. 

"Bets?" Veronica said.

Betty turned wide eyes on her.

"That guy--" she said. "Guys, I think that's _Jughead's dad_."


	2. Chapter 2

They had a hushed pow-wow on Joaquin's bed. It became clear that the only person not surprised by Jughead's father being a Serpent was Cheryl. And she was really-truly unsurprised, not faking it like Veronica seemed to think.

"Stop playing cool," Veronica snapped.

"Not playing. Am," Cheryl said primly. "And anyway, Jughead Jones is a school shooting waiting to happen, and everybody knows it. Reggie says--"

"Don't," Betty warned her. And right then Betty's voice was so harsh it surprised even Betty.

It was the _Mom_ -Betty. Not really Betty. The Betty that came out when people said things about Polly, when Chuck Clayton thought he could make Veronica and other girls (like Polly) easy targets. 

When people were horrible about Jughead, apparently. 

No. Not apparently. Jughead had always been one of her odd little rage buttons. In the third grade, when Cheryl's brother and his friends had made fun of Jughead for his ratty clothes and cheap home lunches, Betty and Archie had poured a full container of orange juice in Jason's backpack. Archie had taken the full blame for it proudly. Betty had been secretly terrified of anyone finding out she'd done it at all, because it was bad. 

But she still kind of thought Jason had deserved it. 

"Okay, I knew the family had fallen on hard times," Kevin was saying now. "But Serpents? My dad would have told me about that."

"Maybe your dad doesn't know," Veronica offered.

Kevin looked shocked at the prospect.

Betty was kind of shocked, too, come to think of it. Why hadn't Jug told her? That was what hurt, and it was a hurt like coming back at the end of break and discovering that Polly had lived a season and several worlds apart from her. This was the same. Someone hiding a whole lifetime. 

"I think we should talk to FP," she decided.

"What?" said Kevin.

"What?" said Cheryl.

"Okay," said Veronica.

She gave an elegant little shrug, like Veronica Lodge felt no fear whatsoever at the prospect of shaking down a gangster on his own turf while dressed in a designer halter dress and pearls. Which, alright, Veronica probably did feel no fear at that. Veronica was a fearless creature, a thunderous, beautiful summer night condensed down into a petite little person. 

"Me and you?" Betty asked.

Veronica nodded.

"Well, good, because I'm not doing it," Kevin said. "Jesus. Do you think I could hide under this bed? Would that be weird, if I hid under this bed? My dad is the sheriff. If the Serpents know I'm here they could hold me hostage or something."

"So courageous," Cheryl said, but she didn't offer to meet FP either. 

Betty waved them all quiet and went back to the door. The trailer had such thin partition walls that she could more or less hear FP perfectly, which was how she knew it was FP. That and the name. Not that many people in Riverdale were named Forsythe Pendleton. Only two, in fact. And only one of them could sound that gravelly and menacing while saying:

_Make sure Marty doesn't fuck up the drop-off point like he did last time._

So it probably wouldn't be a good idea to walk in on that conversation. Betty wanted to talk to FP Jones, not give him a reason to think she knew about his clandestine drug deals. She turned around to alert the others to this and fell into Veronica. 

It was a really small room, and Veronica had crept up right behind her. They fell onto the bed together. Veronica, for all her fearless nature, was breathing hard. And, actually, falling onto her smooth shoulder and soft chest made Betty breathe a little hard too.

"Oh my god, get a room," Cheryl muttered. "Another one. Not the one I'm in."

Betty said, "Cheryl, get under the bed."

Cheryl raised an eyebrow to show that she wasn't going to do this.

Betty said, "He's got to walk in on us. He's a Serpent. We have to let him have control of this, and he can't think that we're eavesdropping."

"But we are," Kevin said, panicky now. "You are. Oh my god, oh my god--"

Veronica looked at Betty. Betty looked at Veronica.

"I'll take Cheryl, you take Kevin," Veronica whispered.

Betty nodded. They separated, and Betty felt a twinge of odd unhappiness about that, but she quashed it as she forced Kevin under the bed. Veronica did the same to Cheryl, a lot more aggressively. 

"Do not make a sound," Veronica said, and if she didn't have the terrifying voice of Betty's mother, then her normal ice queen voice did the trick well enough. 

This left Betty and Veronica on the bed. 

Oh god. This left her on a South Side Serpent's bed with _Veronica_. Veronica kneeling to face her, doing that -- that thing with her eyebrow. Veronica's eyebrows should honestly be some kind of felony. Probably they were a felony in some states. Betty spent a lot of time thinking about that. Probably too much time, when you got down to it.

"Betty," Veronica whispered. "Come on. We have to make noise so that he'll hear us and ask to come in."

And they should look occupied when FP did come in. Really occupied. So that he wouldn't at all suspect they knew what he was.

Funny thing was, Betty kissing her would be the perfect cover story. But Betty had kissed her once already, and it had been marvelous and heart-stopping and fake. Betty didn't want their second kiss to be fake, too. Betty wasn't sure what she wanted, but she wanted to be honest about it.

And, honestly, Veronica in a halter was something incredible. Betty reached out and took her bare shoulder, then pressed her lips to it. She breathed along Veronica's neck and tangled a hand in her soft dark hair. Veronica breathed out hard. Betty's brain screamed that Cheryl and Kevin were _right there_ , and then Betty's brain screamed back that she didn't care, because then Veronica was pushing her back and straddling her.

Veronica seemed to get the no-kiss-on-the-lips-yet thing. This was less forward than that, more exploratory. Fumbling with each other's shirts, finally touching Veronica's amazing chest, letting Veronica push her against the cheap bedframe so that it squeaked and squeaked, or maybe that was Betty herself--

"What's going on in there?" FP thundered through the door.

When he came in, Betty really was shocked and embarrassed and horrified. She sprang away from Veronica and started to pull her sweater back on.

Veronica just turned over and coolly surveyed FP and Joaquin in the doorway.

"Oh my god, J.," she told a startled Joaquin. "Did you bring a friend? He's kind of old. I don't do old."

"Betty Cooper?" said FP. 

"Mr. Jones?" Betty managed. 

The one nice thing was that if she felt at a loss, well, then FP Jones looked equally at a loss. Like he'd never imagined that he would find Betty Cooper making out with a girl on a cheap bed on the South Side of town.

"Can you just let me get my top back on?" Betty said. Even though her brain was still high on Veronica, she was enough of a Cooper that she said it like she was asking someone to pass her the peas.

"Sure," FP managed, and back-tracked out of the room. "I-- You shouldn't be here, Betty. I--I'll wait out here, but we should talk about this."

He closed the door. Betty looked at Veronica. Veronica looked at Betty.

_I think that was a success_ , Veronica mouthed.

"You two are such fucking lesbians," Cheryl said, from under the bed.


	3. Chapter 3

After they got dressed and Veronica said, "It's called bisexuality, Cheryl, you vile Heather wannabe," Betty and Veronica stepped out into the living room.

FP Jones had removed his jacket. Betty thought that was kind of telling. He'd definitely been wearing it before, and it would probably have the Serpent-S on it. But now it was nowhere to be seen and FP was just in a t-shirt.

And Joaquin was in a t-shirt and look of total, abject terror.

Oh. _Oh_. His boss was -- was Betty's old neighbor. And Betty's friend's dad. And would probably not be too pleased at the thought that Joaquin was corrupting Betty.

Betty was stricken with remorse. But before she could apologize to Joaquin or try to do something -- anything -- to salvage the situation for him, Veronica took charge. She sat, legs crossed in a ladylike manner, right next to FP on the couch. She picked up one of the glasses of water Joaquin had poured earlier. And she said, casually, like nothing odd had just happened, "So how do you know Betty?"

FP stared at her. He looked grimmer and more vicious then he had when he'd just been struggling old Mr. Jones of Cedar Drive, or maybe that was just Betty's rising panic speaking.

"How do you know her?" he asked Veronica slowly. He flicked his nose like he was annoyed, and the gesture was so like Jughead that it made Betty's head spin.

"Just met her," Veronica reported. "A few weeks ago. I'm new in town. I'm with--" the briefest of pauses, "--the Blossoms."

Betty could have sworn she heard Cheryl shriek at this lie, but it was drowned out by Veronica dropping the glass on the cheap flooring. It shattered, and Veronica said, "Whoops. Sorry, J."

"No problem," Joaquin said, though his hands shook as he rushed to pick it up. 

"Betty," FP said, slow and careful. "Outside. Now."

"Why?" Betty said innocently. "Can't we talk with--"

"I will call your mother, Betty," FP said.

This was colossally unfair, because Betty was just a girl sleuthing on behalf of her friends, while FP was now some kind of drug lord. If anyone needed the authorities called on them, it was FP, not Betty.

Only he didn't act like a drug lord when they were outside. He acted like -- like old FP Jones, lowest man on the totem pole at Andrews' Construction, but still a stand-up West Riverdale guy. He whirled on Betty, looking both furious and furiously disappointed, and said, "Betty, what are you doing here? This part of town isn't for you!"

"What are you doing here?" Betty said back. 

She felt very brave when she said it. Up close like this, FP didn't look like himself at all. Shadows under his eyes. Like --

God. Like Jughead's. What had happened to this family?

FP regarded her closely.

"Jug didn't tell you we moved here?" he said.

Betty shook her head.

"Had to," said FP. "After Fred fired me, couldn't swing the mortgage on the house."

There was some venom in his tone when he said Archie's dad's name. It really didn't work with the picture Betty had in her head of FP Jones, or of Jughead in general. But then neither did the Serpents thing. And Veronica claimed that it was the Serpents who'd worked to lower the value of the drive-in, and Jughead had been trying so hard to _save_ the drive-in, and, and--

Something was missing. Some piece here was missing. Betty just didn't know what it was. 

"So Jughead lives here now," she said, connecting the pieces that she could see in front of her.

FP gave a harsh bark. Almost a laugh, but too bitter for that.

"Oh, there's a lot Jug hasn't told you," he said. And then he seemed to make a decision.

"Come on, Betty. Let me take you home. I don't want to catch you here, or with people like that, again."

" _People like that_?" Betty said. He had to mean Joaquin and Veronica, and this was offensive because firstly, Joaquin seemed fine, and secondly, she was sick of people acting like -- like Veronica was so bad. When in fact Veronica was slickly beautiful, everything Betty wasn't and so everything that complemented Betty perfectly. 

"People like that," FP said, waving back at the trailer. "People like me."

He pulled her under his arm. He was very warm and fatherly and protective about it, so it took Betty a second to understand what he had said.

"How's Jughead doing, Betty?" he asked, as he steered her in the direction of a bunch of parked cars. Betty glanced anxiously back at the trailer. Veronica and Joaquin stood arguing in the doorway. Veronica looked like she wanted to march after Betty, so Betty caught her eye and gave her a brief headshake.

She needed to get FP talking. If not talking about the Twilight and the deal with Hiram Lodge, then talking about his son. Who hadn't told Betty anything of any relevance for -- for the past year at least.

Had he told Archie? Had _Archie_ kept this from her?

"I really can't say how Jughead's doing," Betty decided, because that was true. "Can't you? You're his dad."

Again FP gave that laugh that didn't have a jot of humor in it.

"Can Alice Cooper say anything real about you, kiddo?"

Betty didn't answer.

"Right," FP said. 

He led Betty to his pick-up, the old blue pick-up that had once driven Betty and Archie and Jughead to October haunted houses and August carnivals. Betty had even fixed this thing for him a few times. She knew how to jimmy the passenger-side door just right to get it to open. FP looked at her fondly and helped boost her in. Betty was torn between being glad at the familiarity and wanting to smack him for -- for being a walking bundle of secrets.

But, no, that wasn't fair. It was Jughead she was really mad at. Jughead should have told her things were this bad. 

"I got Juggie to join the Blue and Gold," she said, as FP started the car. "The school newspaper."

FP nodded slowly.

"That's good," he said, pulling the car out of the lot and down a dirt road to the main highway. "School newspaper's more you. The South Side isn't you. I'm serious about that, Betty."

He spoke the same way his son did, like he could narrate everyone's history and make it all true if he chose. Betty had forgotten that this was a Jones family thing. Because she'd forgotten that the Jones family had been a thing, a struggling little unit sliding slowly out of the picture. And then they'd been gone, and she'd only ever seen Jughead at school or Pop's, always just out of the frame of things.

"What happened to you?" Betty demanded. 

"Me?" FP said. He gave an odd little ghost of a smile.

"And Jughead," Betty insisted. "And Mrs. Jones, and Jellybean--"

"We stopped mattering," FP said easily. "The town is changing, so we don't matter to the town anymore. You know what that means."

But she had no idea. And he gave a laugh that was closer to a real laugh now, like he knew she had no idea.

"Because you live in the South Side?" Betty tried.

FP shook his head.

"Jughead doesn't live in the South Side."

Betty stared at him. FP stared at the road, his mouth a sardonic twist. 

"Well, then where does he--"

"He was living at the Twilight," FP said. "Fuck if I know where he's living now. It'll take another month to track him down, probably."

When he said _fuck_ he seemed every inch a Serpent, but then just after he said it he looked sorry that he'd said it, like he didn't mean to be a Serpent in front of her. This was so confusing that for a minute Betty failed to understand what he'd just told her: that Jughead had been living, actually living, at the Twilight.

"You made sure it was shut down!" she said, because that was the first thought that came into her head. "You knew he was living there, and you actually--"

"Oh, he told you that part, did he?" FP said, sounding tired. "I saw a chance to try and make him come home is what I did. And they didn't even pay me what they should have for it. If he asks you about that, you can tell him so."

God. Like Jughead would ask. Like Jughead knew his father was a Serpent.

Wait. Of course he knew. That was why he wasn't living at home. 

"Are you going to try to shut down other places?" Betty said. "Are you -- are you driving down the value of Riverdale--"

"Riverdale has no value to me," FP snapped. "You, kiddo. West Sider still. Alice Cooper's kid. You matter to this town. The outsiders like me and Jug, we don't. So the next time he goes holier-than-thou about my goings-on, do me a favor and remind him what he is to this town."

Betty stared at him.

"He _isn't_ an outsider," she said. She said it the way Alice would. FP glanced sharply up at her, like he hadn't been expecting that.

Betty pressed on. "He isn't an outsider, even if you've been filling his head with the idea that he is and making him, making him lie to his friends. To me, or to Archie. He's a part of us, and he always has been, and he always will be!"

By now they were near Betty's house, and Betty wanted to run out of the car. Just leave FP Jones. She was putting the pieces together, and she thought -- she thought it wasn't fair to blame Jughead. If FP was this bitter with her, who knew what he was filling Jughead's head with?

Jughead had always been a part of their group. Always. It was just that somewhere along the line, something had twisted up in him so badly that he thought he wasn't. 

She thought FP would say something, but he was silent until they pulled up in front of Betty's house.

"Tell my kid to come home," he told Betty as she got out of the car. "And stop going places with Hermione Lodge's kid."

Betty stiffened. "If you hurt her, I'll tell everybody that you're a Ser--"

"And I'll tell everybody that you were in the South Side with some very shady characters," FP said, waving her quiet. "But don't worry. I don't hurt teenagers. Somebody in this town does. But it isn't me, despite popular belief."

Then he drove away.


	4. Chapter 4

Joaquin walked the rest of them to their cars that night, which made Veronica feel all kinds of terrible about the reckoning he would no doubt face at the hands of FP Jones.

"Joaquin, listen to me," she said, interrupting his tender goodbye moment with Kevin. "If you need to get out of town, I may know a guy in the East Village of New York who could totally use a qualified street dealer."

"Veronica, come on!" Kevin snapped.

"I think it's a good suggestion," Cheryl murmured, sounding bored. "That does seem to be Joaquin's only marketable talent besides necking you."

"Nah. I'm in the Serpents to be part of the muscle, so I'm not a dealer per se," Joaquin said, shrugging. This made Kevin look both horrified and very turned on.

_Bad_ , Veronica mouthed.

_I know_ , Kevin mouthed back, his face a rictus of delight.

"Please stop mouthing at each other because Cheryl and I can both see you," Joaquin said, and very gallantly helped Veronica into her car.

And that was the anticlimactic end to a very climactic night. But this was fine, because the drama continued the next day at Riverdale High, when Betty (thankfully alive, looking sweetly lovely in powder blue and a haze of righteous anger) cornered Archie before class. Veronica followed in her wake. She and Betty had this thing now: she followed Betty as Betty broke into a car, Betty followed her to a literal den of Serpents, she followed Betty when Betty uncharacteristically smacked Archie Andrews hard in the bicep to convey her complete and utter disappointment in him.

"Tell me you didn't know about Jughead, Archie Andrews!"

"Ow!" Archie said. "Know what about Jughead? I don't know anything about Jughead these days!"

Betty stepped back. Her voice was very serious when she spoke.

"That -- _that_ is exactly the point," she said. "We don't know anything that we should know about him. Where did his family move? Where does he live? Do you know any of that?"

"I--" Archie had the terrified look of a man whose pants were caught in an industrial lawn mower (thanks to small town life, Veronica now knew exactly what this looked like). 

Archie said, "No? I don't know? But neither do you? Neither does she?"

"Hey, girl, I just got here. Don't bring me into this," Veronica said.

"We don't know because we stopped asking," Betty said, like Archie was being stupid. "Because we let him fade out. Let him make himself an outsider!"

Archie stared at her, bewildered.

"I know?" he said.

"You know?" Betty spat back. 

She was eerily like her mom right then, but Veronica didn't mind and forgave her instantly, because Veronica had given her her heart, so. She had to take Betty no matter what Betty was like. Daring. Beautiful. Occasionally so wired up that she boiled people alive and denied it the next day, which. Actually, they still had to talk about that at some point. Veronica didn't care about the boy boiled alive, but she did care about making sure Betty was okay.

And right now it was clear that Betty wouldn't be okay unless they resolved the thing with Jughead and Archie. Veronica calmly shelved her own problems (father possibly still making evil deals, mother still aiding and abetting him) and turned to this one. 

"If you know Jughead's become distant, then you know what you have to do," Veronica said. "Don't you, Archiekins?"

"No," Archie admitted. "I don't. If I knew _that_ , I would have done it ages ago, when this all started."

"When did it start?" Betty demanded.

Archie shrugged helplessly, looking a little defeated.

Betty sighed, looking defeated right back.

"O-okay," Veronica said. "Turn those smiles upside down. It's not a hard answer."

They both looked bewildered now.

"You talk to him," Veronica said slowly. "Come on. It's not like it's hard!"

But for the rest of the day -- the entire rest of the day, from nine in the morning to three-thirty in the afternoon -- they acted like it was. Jughead was sardonic. Jughead was sarcastic. Jughead was a loner these days. Jughead _never_ talked not even if you pressed him, and why would he talk to them when they had _failed_ him, and how were they going to talk about things like his father being a _Serpent_ \--

"Oh. My god," Veronica said, after a whole day of this. "You know what? I'll talk to him! Me! I'll do it!"

"It can't be you," Archie said morosely. "It has to be us. We're his friends." 

That he said this was a testament to how much he clearly liked Jughead, because after Betty had dropped the Jughead's-father-is-a-Serpent bomb, Archie had spent periods two and three engulfed in a rage. By periods four-and-five he was mostly fine, but clearly he didn't relish the thought of bringing it up with Jughead.

"I think we both have to be there," Betty said, as they walked to Pop's to meet Jughead, "And we -- we have to give him a chance to talk. To explain. We can't gang up on him, Archie. I'm serious."

"I'm not planning to!" Archie said, already sounding defensive. "But he owes us some answers, doesn't he?"

"Does he?" Veronica said.

Archie and Betty stared at her. Veronica shook her head slowly.

"Honestly, if I were to run around repeating ad nauseum every bad thing that's happened to my family, or that people say about my family, I'd sound like -- like Cheryl talking about Jason. Maybe he just doesn't want to sound like that."

"Sure," Archie said, "but there's a happy medium between Cheryl and total radio silence, Ronnie." 

He sounded hurt, as hurt as Betty had looked all morning when she'd glanced at Jughead sitting quietly on the other side of the room. Which, come to think of it, it was weird that Jughead always was on the other side of the room. He clearly had history with these people.

Enough history to notice when they slid into his booth and sat there in awkward silence for the first five minutes.

"Okay, what's going on?" Jughead said, pulling his laptop closed and leveling a glance first at Betty, then at Archie. "I realize that no one here is ever gunning for conversationalist of the year, but I didn't know I was going to be the focal point of your staring contest."

Veronica, who had also been staring at him for five minutes, spoke up first.

"So like, do you sleep?" she said.

It was the first thing that popped into her head. Betty had said something about bags under his eyes, or under his father's eyes, and so now Veronica was noticing the bags. Actually, they were so noticeable they were practically Dooney & Bourkes.

"So like," Jughead said slowly, "is that any of your business?"

Archie flinched. Betty looked miserable. Veronica rolled her eyes and said, "Excuse me, teen outcast. I'm trying to be a friend here."

Jughead shook his head very deliberately. Veronica had no idea how someone who slouched and crouched and ambled and generally looked so -- so _accidental_ \-- could also make movements this deliberate.

"Stop trying," he instructed her. "Archie and Bets may not have told you this, but I don't form superficial attachments. I do not go with the casual flow."

If Veronica had to roll her eyes one more time, after the past twenty-four hours she had had with Cheryl and now Archie and Betty, probably they would pop out of her head. So she didn't do it.

"Blah blah blah, you're an indie punk who humanity can't relate to. I get it," she said. "I'm not begging for your friendship. But you do have two friends right here who want to talk to you."

To Jughead's credit, he didn't fight this idea. He just stared from Betty to Archie to Betty again, looking vaguely disturbed.

"So," he said, after a second. He held out a hand like he expected the world to put something in it, and was reigned to it being something unpleasant. "Talk."

"I--" Betty began, and then stopped.

"We are so so sorry about the drive-in," Archie said, though the drive-in was completely beside the point.

"Oh my god," Veronica said. "We know you're homeless!"

Betty and Archie both stared at her, scandalized, but whatever. At least it was out in the open. Although maybe she did feel a little bit bad about the way the color drained from Jughead's already pretty colorless face.

"And, okay, we met your dad and I totally get choosing to be homeless compared to hanging with him," she added. "Solid choice. But, consider this, wouldn't it be good to have a home?"

Because, yes, his father was a shady gang leader, but her mother was a big old liar. Veronica sort of got the impulse to divorce yourself from a parent that let you down. But you still needed to have a place to live. And Veronica's every pore shuddered at the thought of living in a _drive-in_.

For his part, Jughead recovered quickly and coolly now. Living in a drive-in or a trailer park or with a gang had given him a lightning-fast ability to react to unpleasant declarations. 

"How long have you known?" he said, whirling on Betty and Archie.

"Just since last night," Betty admitted miserably.

"Hi, no, for me just since this morning," Archie said. Betty had been the one to be strong all night, but now his voice came out stronger. Stronger and a little more condemnatory. "Why didn't you tell us you were at this point? We're your friends!"

" _You_ ," Jughead said, pointing a finger at him, voice still cool, "were not my friend all summer."

"Come on, Jug! You don't even have a home--"

"I have a home," Jughead said. "Riverdale is my home. This town, with its secrets and the past it wants to hide, is my home. It may not care about _me_ \--"

Betty made a face like she thought this was unbelievable.

"It cares!" she said bluntly. "We care! Me. Him. We care!"

"Exactly!" Archie said.

By now all their voices were creeping up, and Veronica was just glad her mother hadn't started her shift yet, because they were starting to make a scene. And it was bad enough to make a scene in front of Pop and the other patrons. As Betty, Archie, and Jughead all whirled accusations at each other, she counted to three very slowly. Then she smacked her hand down, hard, on the table.

That shut them up. It had always shut up the girls at Spence, too. She'd just never thought she would have to deploy it in Riverdale.

"What are we fighting about?" she said. "Jughead is having a hard time, and we all wish he wasn't, right?"

Jughead looked at her ghoulishly, and this would have made anyone else feel about two feet tall, but she was Veronica Lodge and this kind of thing didn't work on her.

"Well?" she demanded.

"How would you like your secrets aired at Pop's to all and sundry--" he began.

"Oh my god," Veronica said, giving up and rolling her eyes one last time. "Secrets are all you care about! You are literally writing an emo boy novel about the people in this town's secrets. Did you think yours, like, didn't count or something?"

"That is exactly what he thought," Betty said, now sounding furious. "That is exactly what he thought, and that is exactly the problem, because--"

"--because it's like he assumed we wouldn't care!" Archie finished. "When we do!"

"God, I wasted like months mooning over Archie--"

"I was dealing with Grundy and all you'd talk to me about was Grundy--"

"--when this whole time, _real_ things were happening with you--"

"--you never told me anything about how you were living--"

Jughead, who was apparently a quick learner, smacked the table next. Again this shut them up. 

"You, Betty, you've been in love with Archie since you were five," he said, "and you, Archie, you've always made sort of questionable romantic choices despite that. That's who you are -- who you both are--"

"Who we are," Betty said, very clearly, "is _your friends_. So don't you dare do that thing where you try and make up our identities for us, Jughead Jones, or tell us where we fit in your little narrative. We fit as your friends."

Jughead shook his head like he was trying to clear it.

"You don't get it, Bets. I like who you are, okay? I like that you're wrapped up in each other, or you're wrapped up in Archie and he's wrapped up in himself--"

"Hey," Archie said.

"Wrapped up in Archie?" Betty said, enraged. "No. No."

At this point Veronica was ready to cut in and be the voice of reason again, but she didn't get a chance to. Betty turned to her, grabbed her shoulders, pulled her in, and kissed her.

Then she pulled back slowly and said, "This is a real kiss, okay?" and dove in again, grabbing Veronica by her very breath, making her taste strawberry milkshake and something glittering.

"Oh my god," Veronica said again, giddy this time. 

Jughead looked dumbfounded. 

Archie looked a little less dumbfounded, but only a little.

"Riverdale is changing," Betty said, when the kissing was done. "I'm changing. You're changing. And that's okay. We're allowed to change, even if sometimes the changes are hard. Even if your changes make you ashamed. But you still _matter_ to us."

"Are we--" Veronica said, no longer even thinking about Jughead. "Are we dating? Is that what's happening now?"

Jughead made a face at her. 

"What?" Veronica said. "We're done with your thing, girl. We're on my thing now."


	5. Chapter 5

They were, in fact, dating now. Betty confirmed it with a smile on her face.

They weren't done with Jughead's thing, though, because _that_ took the rest of the evening to wrap up, and it was very circular. It went like:

"You're moving in with me," Archie said.

"The hell I am," said Jughead.

"The hell you're not," said Archie.

Rinse. Repeat. Veronica found it hard to pay attention, now that she'd gotten her girl. Her girl who knew Veronica's father was probably trying to run the town into the ground, and who didn't care, and who was willing to help Veronica investigate, and who looked incredible in powder blue. 

"This thing with you is going to work out," she told Jughead blithely. "I just know it."

"Thanks," Jughead said, but he said it like _I wish you would crawl back to New York._

Well, too bad. She was in Riverdale now, town of Serpents and secrets and an extraordinary number of people who mattered. 

Even some people who mattered who she didn't _like_. At some point, while Archie was stubbornly haranguing Jughead and Betty was very rationally trying to explain how they would get Fred Andrews to see reason and also Jughead's gangster father to not enact vengeance on Fred Andrews the second Jughead moved in (Jughead's real concern, because for all that he felt he was an original in some ways he was just as much an adorable cliche as the rest of them), Cheryl walked in.

And helped herself to a seat right next to Veronica.

"What are you talking about? Is it about Jason?" she said immediately.

Everyone stared at her.

"No, Cheryl, it's about me," Jughead said slowly.

"Oh," Cheryl said. "Well how was I supposed to guess that? Because of your dad? Whatever. If you shoot up the school, just shoot me cleanly in the heart. Unless I'm wearing my new Ted Baker dress. Then you can shoot me in the head."

Then she waved down a waitress and demanded a lemon-buttermilk milkshake, which sounded absolutely disgusting and also guaranteed that she was intending to stay.

"You know, contrary to popular belief, I accept that the town is changing, but did our social group have to change like this?" Jughead complained. "It's skewing very heavily in favor of the one percent."

"I'm not one percent anymore," Veronica said immediately.

"I still am," Cheryl said. "Do you really want more poor people? God. This is exactly why -- oh look. There's Joaquin. You can stop complaining."

There was Joaquin. Leaning on Kevin like someone had roughed him up a little, but otherwise fine.

Kevin forced himself into the booth next to Archie, which left Jughead crammed against the window. Joaquin slid into the booth just behind them. He and Kevin locked hands.

"Don't mind us," Kevin said brightly. "We are definitely _not_ on a date."

"Oh, so like every day of your life then?" Cheryl said, but even this couldn't dim Kevin's smile.

Archie tried to turn around in his seat despite there not being very much room.

"Hey, are you the Serpent Kevin's dating?" he asked Joaquin.

"No?" Joaquin said.

"Well, you can tell Jughead's dad that he's going to be moving in with me--"

"Do _not_ tell him that," Jughead instructed.

Veronica tuned them out as they continued to argue about it.

"He really is going to be okay, you know," she told Betty in an undertone. "Jughead."

"I know," Betty said. "We're going to make sure of it." 

"Good. Because I need you to focus on me. I'm a very high-maintenance girl," Veronica informed her truthfully.

Betty's turn to roll her eyes. She pulled Veronica in for another kiss. Veronica went completely _swoony_ at it.

**Author's Note:**

> This will be jossed by the next episode but I don't care! It was fun to write.


End file.
